


Constancy

by skeptique



Series: Of Virtues [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Background Draco/Harry, Ficlet, Forgiveness, Gen, I Did In Fact Mess With the Timeline to Make It Work, Reconciliation, posted to tumblr, you can read without reading previous parts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:28:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26454169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skeptique/pseuds/skeptique
Summary: They had been sisters, then they were strangers. Would they ever be sisters again?
Series: Of Virtues [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1844986
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	Constancy

**Author's Note:**

> For dearest L, who asked how Andromeda & Narcissa ended up reconciling in Iustitia & Prudentia. It’s fairly standalone so you don’t have to read I&P but it helps if you are wondering what is happening in the background.

“Don’t mistake this for something it’s not.”

Narcissa Malfoy had lived through many days in her life by telling herself she only had to make it to the next minute, the next hour, the next day. That was all she needed to do. Still terrible days dragged on.

Andromeda had been here at the Manor decades ago right before the beginning of the first Wizarding War. She had fought with her in this very room.

“Lucius Malfoy taking you down a bad path with the rest of these flaming idiots. So you’ll forgive me for not celebrating your new home.”

“You don’t understand, Andy. I do love him,” Narcissa said quietly. Their tea was abandoned. No one had touched the sandwiches.

“It doesn’t matter. I love Ted. It won’t change anyone’s mind.”

“They’d welcome you as long as you just didn’t marry him,” Narcissa said, her heart sinking.

She had hoped Andromeda would be less stubborn as the youngest. Why did she have to throw it in the family’s face? They were traditional. Honestly, at points they were downright backwards for the times. But they were blood. Blood was all you had.

“You’re always talking around the point like the rest of them,” Andromeda said dismissively. “Lucius is joining an army, Cissy! It’s one thing to believe that dangerous shite, it’s quite another to follow a madman into battle.”

“Bella’s a part of it too,” Narcissa said weakly. Not that it would help her case.

Even then, they had both stopped seeing her regularly. Bellatrix was a true believer. Moreso than even Lucius. She was frightening in her devotion. Without input she would ramble on about the way the world would be under the Dark Lord and privately, it made Narcissa shiver. But her husband had stood by her and she would stand by her husband.

“There’s something wrong with Bella. We both know it. There’ll be nothing good coming from all this. I’ve tried to explain over and over what this means. Why can’t you understand?” Andromeda snapped, her eyes flashing.

Narcissa’s mouth dried. She licked her lips trying to gather her words together.

“I don’t know what you want from me,” said Narcissa.

“I want you to say that you value me and my potential family as much as you and your family,” Andromeda said.

“I want a better world, Andromeda. I do. There have been regrettable things done but in a new movement there’s bound to be—”

“Regrettable for whom?” Andromeda asked pointedly. Narcissa faltered.

“See I thought you were just smitten with the first man who didn’t treat you like scum underneath his shoe when he could have. Now I know you’re a bloody fool,” Andromeda said, conversationally. She used a finger to swirl the lemon twist in her tea but still didn’t drink it. Narcissa followed that finger.

“Andromeda, you know that—”

“We are marrying next week Wednesday at the Ministry. I don’t expect to see you there,” Andromeda continued.

Even with Aunt Walburga threatening daily to blast Andromeda off the tapestry if she carried on living in filth as she put it, they had managed thus far to hold on to each other.

“You know what happens if you do,” Narcissa said.

“I think it’s high time we all pick sides, don’t you?” Andromeda said.

“You’ve been led astray. You’re throwing your family away for nothing.” Narcissa said. She almost expected Andromeda to deny it.

“If you deny me as your sister, that is your choice. But you’ll do it here.” Andromeda’s mouth had set in a thin line to stop her lips from trembling. A tear slipped down Andromeda’s cheek but she stood up. Narcissa stood too.

“If you marry Edward Tonks, I renounce you as my sister.”

It was as if Narcissa had spoken a dark, poisonous spell in that moment. She expected Andromeda would relent. If she had known what she was doing, Narcissa would have tucked her tongue behind her teeth and swallowed her words. But one never knows at the moment.

“So shall it be.”

Andromeda left. She wasn’t supposed to leave.

Over the decades, Andromeda had spurned all her owls. Turned away letters before and after the first War. She returned presents for Nymphadora Narcissa had sent anonymously from shops in Diagon as if she knew it was her. Once after learning more about their genealogy from his tutor, Narcissa had even let Draco, age ten, carefully pen a letter to her.

The answer came swiftly.

_It will be hard for you to understand, but I am not your aunt. I do not mean this to hurt your feelings. Your mother knows why and may explain if she wishes. Sometimes all we have is the family we choose. I wish you all the best in the future. Please do not write me again._

_Mrs. Andromeda Tonks_

Even then, Draco was a quiet, thoughtful boy. He passed the letter to Narcissa, gave her a quick hug and left her in her rooms to cry. She thought he knew before she did that the letter would reach and strangle the little hope left in her heart.

When Lucius got home, he had kissed her all over her face.

“You shouldn’t cry, dear. You know it makes me cry,” Lucius said softly. “You’ll see. It will all be better soon.”

After that, Narcissa stopped trying. If she saw her sister in Wizarding London, she turned up her nose and pretended she had ceased to exist. Whoever said time heals all wounds was someone who hadn’t lost two sisters in twenty years. Both alive, both beyond her.

Then there was only one.

*******

Draco had handed her the letter from Andromeda to read. He was distracted looking after Harry Potter. He didn’t even spare her more than a glance before returning to Harry’s side. She’d suspected if he would ever fall in love, he would be as single-minded as the rest of the family and she was right.

She felt the faint echo between them of all the things she or Lucius might have said about family, duty, and heirs in another life. Deep down inside she didn’t care at all. Draco had worked so hard to do right, and at least one of them deserved to be happy.

Draco’s owl Ariadne perched on her shoulder. She offered a finger and Ariadne hopped onto it, while Narcissa made her way to her rooms.

She read the letter from Andromeda but she’d lost the knack for interpreting her. Why did Andromeda want her to know Draco had written and she had written back? Was it to hint the door was open? Would she only welcoming news of Potter?

She wrote and rewrote while the sun set steadily dimming the light. In the end it was by candlelight she finally wrote something she could send.

_It’s been so long I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry for everything._

The reply came in the morning:

_An apology was a good place to start. I have missed you._

Narcissa didn’t have anything to say to that, but those few words knocked her off balance. She cried again. But it wasn’t just for Lucius. She would spend the rest of her life missing him, but he had been away for years and she never really thought she’d see him again after the trial. Not this time.

No, she cried for all that was lost to her now. All those years, all that potential that had been dashed to the wind. For her son, who still flinched whenever Narcissa came too fast around a corner and who took potions to sleep.

For Bella, the brilliant smiling girl who had once had got halfway through an Unbreakable Vow with her and Andy so they would promise never to leave her behind. Who turned into someone who had turned her wand at Narcissa and her family for the Dark Lord.

For Andy who had seen more clearly than most that what was right and was steadfast in the sight of evil. She had never wavered. She had been more loyal, more pure and more willing to protect what was hers than any of the rest of them.

The letters back and forth were exchanged in a trickle afterwards. Narcissa sent the kind of long rambling letters she had written Draco before with updates on her garden. Andromeda talked about cooking. Narcissa didn’t push for anything more.

One spring morning she felt a knock on the wards. She didn’t have any deliveries scheduled Most of the time neighbours or potioneers with orders just dropped things on the front step or in the drive.

She spelled her hands free from the dirt and answered the door to Kingsley Shacklebolt and a young woman she thought was a Clearwater, with all the blonde curls. Narcissa wasn’t a stranger to Aurors at her door, but it had been a while since it last happened.

“Head Auror Shacklebolt and my colleague Senior Auror Clearwater. Mrs. Malfoy, do you mind if we come in?”

Narcissa swept aside and led them to the parlour. She was too old to be properly self-conscious about her circumstances. The Manor was falling apart and she was wearing linen shortalls with one of Lucius’ moth-eaten grey house cardigans. A mirror confirmed there was dirt streaked on her face and her hair was a bird’s nest with her wand sticking out of the back where she had tucked it for safekeeping. All her life she’d had pin straight hair and the second it went grey, the whole thing had curled.

“Please sit. Would you like anything to drink?” Narcissa said. Some old habits die hard, even though she’d have to be the one to fetch a kettle. They sat on the chairs stiffly, both aurors leaning forward.

“No, thank you,” said Auror Shacklebolt.

“We’re here because today, your son was taken from St Mungo’s at approximately 1:12 pm. We currently believe that he was taken by a group of new Death Eaters. We believe that he is still in the United Kingdom,” Auror Clearwater said.

There was something about how softly she spoke that unsettled her. They had straddled the line between an old Pureblood society and this new world so uneasily. Every single time Draco went to work she had worried that someone would finally track him down and make him pay for all their sins. She fell into her old role naturally.

“How much?” Narcissa said. “I’ll pay whatever you ask.” Her voice caught on a sob.

Narcissa would scrape up a bribe if she had to borrow, beg and steal. She had been brought low once. She didn’t know what the word shame meant anymore.

“There’s no need for that. We are working hard on tracking him, ma’am,” Head Auror Shacklebolt said.

“You’ll find him.” It wasn’t a question but Shacklebolt nodded. “He wouldn’t go along with something like that willingly. Draco wouldn’t—”

“He’s been of great assistance to our investigation and there’s no question in our mind that he is the victim here. We are pouring all our resources into finding him.”

Narcissa just had to get through this conversation. So she did. She calmly allowed them to ask questions about Draco’s routines, work and acquaintances. Then she closed the door behind her and sat in the solar at Draco’s desk fiddling with his Muggle pens.

“Narcissa, I’ve just heard,” a voice said from the door.

She would have known her sister’s voice anywhere. Andromeda stood awkwardly in the doorway. She seemed to be wearing a purple striped housecoat over a green checked house dress and slippers as if she had run out of her home. She was greying too, but had more laugh lines.

Their mother would have fainted at both of their outfits. Narcissa stood.

“Andromeda. How good of you to—” But she didn’t finish because Andromeda just wrapped her arms around her, slowly. It had been so long. Her voice cracked. “How good of you to come.” And then she was sobbing.

“They’ll find your son. Harry won’t let anything happen to him.” Andromeda whispered into her hair.

“They have to, gods above. They have to find him. I don’t think I can do this again,” Narcissa confessed.

They stood there embracing for a long, long moment, before they both heard a wobbly “Gran?”

“Yes, pumpkin?” Andromeda answered. A blue haired boy popped his face in the doorframe. He must be her grandson Teddy. Funny enough, he reminded her very strongly of Draco at that age. Something about the seriousness in his expression.

“Should we go visit Harry?”

“Not right now. He’s quite overwhelmed with his boyfriend missing. We’ll be staying here for the night,” Andromeda said. She was still stubborn then. Andromeda hadn’t even asked if she could stay. But Narcissa was grateful because now didn’t have to beg.

Finally, Teddy’s gaze whipped around to Narcissa. She froze. She didn’t know what to say. It was one thing to learn that Remus and Nymphadora had a child, it was quite another to see him in person.

“Teddy, this is my sister. She’s Harry’s boyfriend’s mum.” Teddy took a few seconds to understand the chain of relationships. This was a boy who hadn’t been forced to memorize genealogies like they had. It must be freeing.

“Hello,” he said, shyly ducking his head.

“I know just what you need,” Andromeda said, walking towards the kitchens. “We’ll put a kettle on.”

Once they had drank nothing but special ordered loose leaf Assam black, and now all Narcissa had to offer was a dusty box of PG Tips. They drank it all the same. Andromeda still took her tea with a twist of lemon, she noted.

Andromeda brought her out to the greenhouse and they worked together in silence, picking the best of the vegetables for a soup, tapping with their wands to float them back into the kitchen.

“Why did you come?” Narcissa asked, chopping butternut squash.

Teddy was in the gardens, looking at frogs dotted around the pond.

“You needed me,” Andromeda said. She said it as if it was a small thing, adding shallots and butter to a pot.

Narcissa wasn’t prone to dwelling. She was at peace with the idea that she would never repay for her own part in the War. There was no amount of hiding in her home that made it bearable that she had tried to ruin the world and failed. There was no amount of reparations that gave children back their parents. She suddenly ached with that regret though, as if it had all happened just yesterday.

“I would have understood if you didn’t come,” Narcissa said quietly.

“We can’t live in the past forever, Cissy.” Andromeda said with a sigh.

It was midnight before Andromeda forced her into bed. She picked a spot in the same wing for Teddy, transfiguring a couch handily into a bed. And she tucked up beside Narcissa in bed like it hadn’t been years and years since they had done that. It was strange since Narcissa had become used to her bed being empty. She lie awake, listening to the shushing sounds of Andromeda’s breaths.

“Can’t sleep?” Andromeda said.

“I’m scared they will hurt him because of what we did and I won’t be able to live with myself. He was just a child,” she whispered.

“I know,” Andromeda whispered back. “But you need to sleep. You understand?”

Narcissa felt herself being pulled into the circle of her arms and fell asleep like that.

When they finally got news of Draco’s whereabouts, the Manor exploded into activity. Pansy Parkinson and Theodore Nott had shown up to coordinate all the visitors before leaving again. Healers set up an entire makeshift ward in the solar including a few of his classmates who all murmured well wishes. She had a few firecalls in rapid succession from Aurors giving her some broad details about their plan without revealing anything.

“I need to ask you a favour,” Andromeda said nervously. She was standing by the fireplace, as they had both agreed too many people were around.

“Anything,” Narcissa said.

“Take care of Harry, will you?” Andromeda said.

“Of course. I’ll take care of him, like he’s my own,” she promised. She had promised the same to Molly Weasley by letter. They parted on one last fierce hug.

“Goodbye, Great-Aunt Cissy,” Teddy said, waving in the fireplace.

“Goodbye, Teddy,” she said, with a small half-smile.

*******

Teddy was apparently using his Christmas to test out the entire Winter inventory of that Weasley joke shop. There were an awful lot of things that seemed to exist just to scare the daylights out of Narcissa as she brought food into the smaller dining room.

Harry and Draco were bickering about the appropriate volume for Celestina Warbeck’s Home for the Holidays.

“Get in the holiday spirit, Potter,” Draco said.

“Turn it the f—” Pansy stopped herself, looking at Teddy. “Turn it down!”

Draco turned it down with a wave of his wand and sang along louder. Andromeda joined in softly under her breath. Narcissa could honestly say that not a single Black family member could carry a tune to save their own life.

Theodore got up to start helping Andromeda and Narcissa put out the food.

“Why don’t you play something instead?” Andromeda suggested kindly. Draco still hadn’t got out of the habit of listening to whatever his aunt said, so he sat at the piano and Harry stood by and leaned on it.

‘Thank you’ Narcissa mouthed to her sister.

“I didn’t know you played piano,” Harry said. Draco shrugged, tripping over some quick scales when Harry kissed him on the cheek. Pansy started calling out requests.

“Do you remember when you were that in love?” Narcissa asked, laughing a little.

“Seems like forever ago,” Andromeda answered wistfully. “Help me unbundle this. Molly’s sent over a torte.”

This was not the life she had imagined in the slightest, but it was much better.


End file.
